SKYLIGHTS

Astronomy news for the two-week period starting Friday,
November 20, 2009.

We begin with the
Moon in its waxing crescent phase as it
closes in on first quarter on Tuesday,
November 24. Continuing to wax in the gibbous phase, the Moon then hits full a week later, around or just after
midnight the night of Tuesday, December 1. The remainder of the
week then sees it gibbously wane. The
Moon passes apogee, where it
is farthest from Earth, on Sunday the 22nd of November and then
makes its perigee passage
the morning of Friday, December 4th.

Even given the two weeks available, there is but one obvious
planetary passage. Look for the fat crescent Moon a few degrees to
the north of
Jupiter the evening of Monday the 23rd. Later in our period
the Moon will make a nice triangular configuration with Castor and Pollux (to the southwest of the two
stars) the night of Thursday, December 3. In lesser passages, the
Moon zips north of Neptune the
night of Monday the 23rd, then north of
Uranus on Thursday the 26th. Speaking of the seventh planet
from the Sun, Uranus, just below the Circlet of Pisces, ceases
retrograde motion on Tuesday the 1st as it resumes its slow
easterly motion against the stars.

The early evening is still home to Jupiter. Now transiting the meridian to the south in twilight, the
giant planet sets around 10 PM, but around half an hour after
Mars rises, so the sky does not become completely planetless
(excluding dim Uranus and Neptune). The red planet then rides the
eastern sky for most of the remainder of the night, not transiting
the meridian until close to 5 AM. During our period, Mars moves
from eastern Cancer into Western Leo to the west-northwest of Regulus. In between, look for the
rising of Saturn around 1:30 AM, the
ringed planet closely holding its position just to the northeast of
the Autumnal equinox in Virgo. At the end of the story is
Venus, which is now slipping into invisibility as it slowly
becomes lost to bright twilight.

As Cygnus (the Swan, with Deneb) and Lyra (the Harp, with Vega) move steadily, night after night,
into the evening northwestern skies, Perseus (the Hero who rescued Andromeda from dim Cetus) and Auriga (the Charioteer, with bright Capella) climb oppositely into the
northeastern heavens. In a ragged triangle to the south of the two
snorts Taurus (the Bull, with
orange Aldebaran). Toward the
east find Gemini with Castor and
Pollux, all of them focused on bright Orion (the Hunter, with Betelgeuse and Rigel).